“Purpose” has been touted as the key to 21st-century success
capitalism with a soul
Starbucks paid no U.K. corporate tax for three years on sales of £1.2 billion. Johnson and Johnson kept 98% of its cash offshore in 2017–almost $42 billion.
Brand purpose is at risk of losing any meaning.
Wealth was meaningless unless you used it to raise the living standards of others. It’s a concept called the Commonwealth.
It would be better to set the senior management an exam question: What is this company’s commonwealth, and how do we help it to prosper? Patagonia treats the environment as a commonwealth: There’s no point in making great outdoors clothes if the outdoors has become a climate-baked hellscape.
Quakers were honest. Quakers were straight dealers. Quakers paid their debts.